1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a yolk cup which can be advantageously incorporated in an automatic egg breaking apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a yolk cup of the type which receives the content of an automatically broken egg and separately discharges the yolk and albumen of the egg content.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, eggs have found wide use. For example, the egg yolk may be used as a material for making mayonnaise or other food products. The egg white (albumen) may be used for making pharmaceutical products or as a binder for protein products. Due to such wide use of the egg, it is absolutely necessary in industry to use an automatic egg breaking apparatus for breaking eggs and taking out their contents at high speed. Further, since the two different parts of the egg content have different applications, it is also necessary to automatically separate the yolk and albumen.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,111 to Willsey discloses a cup assembly used in an automatic egg breaker for separating the content of an automatically broken egg. More specifically, the cup assembly comprises an upper yolk cup (separating cup) and a lower albumen cup. The yolk cup has a V-shaped groove at a front portion of the yolk cup, and a separate slot at a rear portion of the yolk cup. When the yolk cup receives the egg content, the egg albumen is discharged gravitionally through the V-shaped groove and through the slot for falling into the lower albumen cup while retaining the egg yolk. Further, the yolk cup is pivotable to assume a laterally inclined position for discharging the egg yolk over the top brim of the yolk cup.
According to the prior art arrangement described above, the V-shaped groove is used only for selectively discharging the egg albumen, and the egg yolk is discharged over the top brim of the yolk cup by laterally pivoting the yolk cup. Thus, it is necessary to later pivot the albumen cup forwardly downward for discharging the albumen from the albumen cup. In other words, the egg yolk and the egg albumen must be discharged from the respective cups by two different pivotal movements with a time difference. As a result, the efficiency of the automatic egg breaker as a whole becomes relatively low.
While it is conceivable to use the V-shaped groove also for discharging the egg yolk by pivoting the yolk cup forwardly downward without prior lateral pivoting. In this case, however, the yolk sac is likely to be damaged by coming into rubbing contact with the edges of the V-shaped groove.
Further, the prior art yolk cup is also disadvantageous in that the V-shaped groove inevitably forms a discontinuity of the upper brim. Thus, the yolk cup may be easily deformed by contact with external objects.